By Mike O’Neill

Just recently, I took the proverbial ‘bull by the horns’ and started to clear out the garage. But what should I do with all the ‘stuff’ I’ve accumulated over the years. I have already passed some items through the charitable channels but the balance of items had some monetary value that could be put towards a new project.

Just as in Business, there are many channels to market your product but to effect the best return you must match product to market. Therefore the nature of the product I had to sell was geared towards the ‘Car Boot Sale’, or so I thought.

Early this morning I loaded up and set off to arrive at a ‘Car Boot’ venue in which I had pre-booked a couple of stalls for a small fee. I duly ‘set out my stall’ with the array of products and labeled them with some price guide information to allow the prospective purchasers to chose to buy, according to their needs and appreciation of the products.

During the morning I noticed that:

a) there was a distinct lack of prospective purchasers

b) the demographic of the crowd was not particularly geared to my ‘products’.

Initially I thought that the prices I had asked for the products were too expensive and I started to reduce some items. However whilst this was slightly successful it revealed a flaw in my marketing strategy.

How many times in Business have we returned from a sales call and wondered why our product ‘the best on the planet’, was not snapped up by our customer?

How many times have we gone back to the same customer and reduced the price to get the business?

Whilst some Sales Strategies can play out this way it is more important to identify the correct Marketing Strategy and match your Product to the Needs of your Target Market.

The result, a higher Margin for this sale and a greater opportunity to build a long-term relationship, which in turn will allow you consistent profitable sales.

Sometimes you need to ‘reboot’ your internal software and match your thinking to your true marketing strategy, rather than the wrong target market that just happens to be convenient and at hand.

I was on holiday with my family last week. The first night we had a lovely meal – the service was very good as was the food. We all left the restaurant feeling good. We visited the same restaurant on our last night – the outcome this time was completely different. The service was poor as was some of the food. Yes they were very busy, but that is when a business needs to be at the top of it’s game. Please the customer and they will come back, and hopefully they will refer you to a friend. You need them to get to know, like, and trust you.

Customers are the lifeblood of your business. You need to focus on getting a continuous stream of new customers, AND retain and sell again to your existing customers. It’s not rocket science – the more people you talk to that are in your target market, using the right marketing strategies and tactics, and then consistently follow up, the more you will convert into customers. In this instance the statistics don’t lie - it really is a  Numbers Game.

If you know that for every 30 prospects you will convert 3 new customers, but you tend to market to about 12 prospects only now and again because you are so busy – then you are unlikely to get any new customers. Sound familiar?

And if you don’t get your customer service just right, every single time, you will lose both potential and new customers – just as happened on my holiday.

So what should you do? Take some time out and make sure that you have as  a minimum a simple marketing plan that you follow every single day. Don’t knock the numbers – it really does work.

By Mike O’Neill

You may wonder why we are constantly bombarded by constant Sales of every conceivable product from Breakfast Cereals, Cars, Sofas and now Laser Eye Surgery. For the word Sale read Promotion – essentially this is the purpose of the exercise i.e. to get you to take action in a positive manner towards the product and purchase within a time period.

Prior to recent VAT increase, how many times did you see the message Buy Now before the VAT Rise, or indeed a countdown to 4 January? These campaigns are targeted to make us take action using the fear of what you might miss, if you don’t Buy Now.

You may also think to yourself, why do I always notice the message, whether it be on Television, Bill Poster, Radio or Newspaper Advertisement. Answer! You are the Target Market. Many large companies spend £Millions on directing their products to your brain.

Did you know that if you regularly shop at one of the large supermarkets using you ‘Loyalty Card’ they have a complete file on what you buy, how often and for how much? In this technology driven environment, data is collected about our buying patterns, allowing the companies to give us what we want, not necessarily what we need, i.e. BOGOF, or Buy One Get One Free. Do we really need 20kg of Soap Powder?

If you operate a company offering a Product or Service, then these technologies can help you identify your Target Market and ‘tailor’ your Product or Service to their Wants. In fact if you have overproduced a product you may even consider a Sale!